International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)
Volume: 04 Issue: 04 | Apr -2017 www.irjet.net
PWM Based Automobile Braking System
Sangeetha Rajeev1, Aswin M2, Tanya Koottungal3
123 EEE Dept,Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, India
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Abstract - Electric vehicles are emerging with increase in
technology. When compared with conventional vehicles
system, electric vehicles outrun the latter in most of the
aspects related to automobiles. In electric vehicles, While
driving along, energy flows from the batteries to the motors,
turning the wheels and providing the kinetic energy needed to
move. In the proposed system, ultrasonic sensors are used and
automatic speed control is done using pwm technique. The
ultrasonic sensors measure the distance of the obstacle and
according to the corresponding distance the speed of the
vehicle is regulated and reduced gradually. The speed is
controlled proportional to the distance of the obstacle from
the vehicle. In case of situations where sudden braking is
needed overcoming inertia effect, the reverse pulses are
provided. The pulses are reversed using H-bridge. Also
skidding of the vehicle is prevented by using speed sensors and
ultrasonic sensors.
Key Words: PWM, DC motor, Ultrasonic sensor, speed
sensor
1. INTRODUCTION
An accident is defined as an unplanned and uncontrolled
event in which action and reaction of an object or person
results in personal injury or damage to the property. The
volume of freight traffic movement has been dramatically
increased in the country. It is a matter of serious concern
that about 125,000 people get killed (estimated for the year
2009 by Central Bureau of Health Intelligences) in road
traffic accidents in India and more than half a million are
injured annually. This is a conservative estimate as not all
motor vehicle accidents are reported just to avoid coercive
and impractical adjudication system. It is estimated that the
country loses around Rs.75,000 crore (estimated for the year
2009 by Central Bureau of Health Intelligences) annually due
to road traffic accidents which is 2-3 percent of the GDP. The
existing electric vehicles have technologies such as ABS
(Anti-Locking Braking System), SRS Air Bags (Supplemental)
2. DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM
The main target for this project is to design an automatic
brake for vehicles due to which car stops when sensor
senses the obstacles. The braking circuit function is to brake
the car suddenly without any further forward motion on
detection of any obstacle. Automatic Braking is a technology
for automobiles to sense an imminent collision with another
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vehicle, person or obstacle; or a danger and to provide
protection by applying the brakes to slow the vehicle
without driver input. The principle used for the automatic
braking system is the Pulse width modulation
implementation for DC motors which are present in latest
electric cars. Efforts have been reported for sensing vehicle
surroundings with different visible, non-visible (infrared)
light and time-of flight sensors. Ultrasonic sensors are well
accepted technology for distance sensing application. The
Ultrasonic Sensor will give an analog value which is sent to
PIC micro controller through ADC. The controller will
calculate the distance accordingly to the ADC value and
controls the input to the motor by varying the duty cycle of
PWM pulses. Thus increasing or decreasing the speed of the
motor is possible. At the same time when any obstacle is
below the pre-set distance value, then automatically a
sudden braking is provided. This allows the travel to be in a
safe and secure manner. Manual control is provided for user
convenience.
2.1 Basic Principle
First, the distance of the obstacle infront is sensed using
ultrasonic. Based on the sensor output given to the
microcontroller, the distance is calculated and compared
with a standard reference distance. If the distance is within
the defined critical limits, the microcontroller activates the
brake control mechanism and slows down the vehicle or
brings it to a halt. The sensor keeps track of any obstacle in
the front continuous and it is given as input to
microcontroller. This simple concept of measuring the
relative distance between the two vehicles along with our
proposed speed control mechanism will help in reducing the
accidents to a great extent.
The control mechanism is based upon two major
classification of cars: Electric cars (no gears) and Non
Electric cars (with gear system) i.e. cars with internal
combustion engine. In case of electric cars, the internal
combustion engine of the vehicle is replaced usually with a
DC electric motor generator along with some additional
batteries. The concept of electric motors is relatively simple,
capable of generating torque from stand-still and eliminating
the need for a gearbox. Mechanically this makes the system
simpler and much lighter. Depending on the acceleration
given by the driver, a proportional amount of voltage
reaches the motor and hence its speed varies in proportion
to this applied voltage.
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Volume: 04 Issue: 04 | Apr -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

inertial effect. In order to provide a complete stop to the

vehicle without any further forward motion, negative PWM
pulses are being applied in similar way as the plugging
braking of DC motors as shown in Fig-2. The negative pulses
are applied at instant when the supply of positive pulses to
the motor is cut. The period upto which negative pulses are
applied is determined on the basis of speed sensor output.
The PWM pulses can also be applied in intervals to act Anti-
locking Braking system to avoid skidding of the vehicle. The
PIC Microcontroller 16F877A act as the brain of the system
that controls the DC motor based on the input from sensor. A
keypad is provided to pre-set the distance at which the
vehicle has to be stopped. Ultrasonic sensor measures the
distance of the obstacle from the vehicle. Based on the input
from the sensor, the microcontroller sends pwm pulses to
the Motor driver which in turn drives the motor. The LCD
screen displays the distance of obstacle from vehicle. A 12
volt battery is used as the power supply.
Fig -1: Pulse width modulated signal

To implement speed control mechanism in such systems, the

most effective and efficient method is to use the concept of
pulse width modulation (PWM). The PIC16F877A has two
inbuilt CCP modules i.e. Capture/Compare/PWM. Based on
the signal received from the sensors, these will be
programmed to control the speed of the motor. By varying
the amount of time the signal is on, the average of the signal
approximates the level of the analog DC voltage needed to
drive the motor at the same speed. This lets us vary the
speed of the motor without changing the power supply
voltage or current. In general, there are two different
approaches to improve the induction motor efficiency
especially under light-load conditions, namely, loss model
The concept of pulse width modulation is illustrated in Fig-1.

The average DC voltage value for 0% duty cycle is zero; with Fig -2: Pulse for sudden braking of vehicle
25% duty cycle the average value is 1.25V (25% of 5V). With
50% duty cycle the average value is 2.5V, and if the duty
cycle is 75%, the average voltage is 3.75V and so on. The
maximum duty cycle can be 100%, which is equivalent to a
DC waveform. Thus by varying the pulse width, we can vary
the average voltage across a DC motor and hence its speed.
The application of so formed PWM pulses helps to control
the speed of the vehicle. On the sudden detection of an
obstacle, a complete halt of the vehicle is required. This
becomes impossible for large electric vehicles due to its

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 04 | Apr -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

3. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

The simulation of the project is done in Proteus. Program is

written in C language within MPLAB software. The simulated
view is shown in Fig-3 Instead of the obstacle, a resistor is
included which gives reduced voltage to the ultrasonic
sensor based on the resistance value in analogy to the
distance of the obstacle from the sensor. Based on the
distance value, pulses of different duty cycle are provided
which is checked and verified by CRO. The circuit diagram
and the final hardware images are given in the Fig-4&6.

Fig -3: Simulation Model

Fig -5: Flow chart of implementation

The project is expanded to accommodate a more efficient

braking with the addition of ABS braking system. A speed
sensor is added to check the speed of the vehicle after the
reverse pulses are given. Sudden stop indicates zero velocity
on the speed sensor. Further the distance is again measured
to check any change in the distance value. A change in
distance indicates skidding. Thus to avoid skidding, electric
ABS system is activated by applying intermittent pulses. The
Fig -4: Circuit Diagram flowchart indicating implementation is shown in Fig-5. If the
distance is less than the preset value, negative pulses are
applied till velocity reaches zero.

Once velocity is found to be zero, distance is again measured. 4. CONCLUSIONS

Pulses are applied in intervals till the change in distance
ceases. This system acts as the ABS braking system. This project represents design and implementation of an
Automatic Braking system indented to use in vehicles that can
solve the problem where drivers may not brake manually, but
vehicles can reduce speed automatically due to obstacles. It

© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 2053
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 04 | Apr -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

proposed an efficient braking system for electric vehicles
that avoids all the drawbacks of existing mechanical brakes.
It discusses three algorithms namely, obstacle avoidance
algorithm that detects the obstacle in front of the vehicle and
brakes automatically, speed control algorithm that can
accelerate or decelerate the vehicle according to the distance
of vehicle from obstacle, braking algorithm where by sudden
stopping of the vehicle is enabled. The project also
incorporates the use of PWM pulses for Anti locking braking
system .Through research presented, we propose an
intelligent electrical system for accident prevention and
making the world a much better and a safe place to live.
3. Rhushab Khakhar and Duhitha Kulkrani “Intelligent car
speed Control system , "International journal of
Advanced Technology and innovative Research, July-
2016,Pages: 1381-1384
4. Nair Rajiv Somrajan and Sreekanth P.K., “PLUGGING
BRAKING FOR ELECTRIC VEHI CLES POWERED BY DC
MOTOR", International journal of modern trends in
engineering and design, Vol 11, No 2, March 1996
5. Hiroshi Fujimoto; Yuya Yamauchi “Advanced motion
control of electric vehicle based on lateral force observer
with active steering", IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, Vol. EC-2, No. 1, March 2016.

6. Sagar Maliye , Pragyanpriyanka Satapathy , Sudeendra

Kumar, Kamalakanta Mahapatra,
“Regenerative and Anti-Lock braking system in electric
vehicles", Advanced Communication Control and
Computing Technologies (ICAC-CCT)December 2015.

7. Schlegl, T. BretterklieberT, Neumay M. and Zangl H.

Combined Capacitive and Ultrasonic Distance
Measurement for Automotive Applications, IEEE Sensors
Journal ,2011

8. Okan Tur, Ozgur Ustun, R. Nejat Tuncay \ An

Introduction to Regenerative Braking of Electric Vehicles
as Anti-Lock Braking System", 2016

Fig -6: Hardware Model International Conference on Circuit, Power and

Computing Technologies
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a great pleasure to acknowledge all those who have

supported us for successfully completing our project. First of
all, we thank God almighty for his blessings as it is only
through his grace that we were able to complete our project
successfully. We are deeply indebted to our Principal, HOD,
Project Guide and Faculty advisor for their creative
suggestions during the preparation of the project.

REFERENCES

1. H.Goutham1, M.A.Arun Shrivasan2,K.Arun Kumar3 and

R.K.Praveen4, “Smart eye using ultrasonic sensor in
Electrical vehicles for differently able,”
IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering (IOSR-JEEE) ,Mar Apr. 2014;9:16

2. Dhanya K. R. and R. Jeyanthi, “AUTOMATIC

BRAKING SYSTEM WITH SENSOR FUSION CONCEPT",

IIEEES Research Science Press, 1998;34:82231.

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